Super Hollows
What types of trees and hollows attract the most wildlife?
More than 300 species of native Australian wildlife use tree hollows for shelter or breeding. However, hollow-bearing trees are becoming increasingly rare as human development and hazard reductions lead to clearing of large trees.
In highly modified habitat, such as urban centres, these tree hollows are the key to maintaining populations of native arboreal wildlife such as brushtail possums, sulphur crested cockatoos, rainbow lorikeets, wood ducks, kookaburras and owls.
In highly modified habitat, such as urban centres, these tree hollows are the key to maintaining populations of native arboreal wildlife such as brushtail possums, sulphur crested cockatoos, rainbow lorikeets, wood ducks, kookaburras and owls.
Possums use several tree hollows within their home range, sharing a hollow sequentially but defending the hollow against simultaneous occupation. Similarly, some parrot species are known to aggressively defend a nest hollow against other parrots. Despite this within-guild competition, we expect that hollows may be shared sequentially across the year among different guilds of wildlife, many of which are highly inconspicuous (e.g. frogs, bats).
To understand how these animals coexist in an urban environment we need to determine the level of competition or sequential use of tree hollows. Are there high quality ‘superhollows’ that support multiple species?
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This project aims to understand hollow use and sharing across seasons using direct observation with motion-sensitive wildlife cameras.
Research led by D. Willemsen, L. Schwanz, N. Jordan